The following is an unedited Armenian government press release regarding the first meeting of the Working Group on State-Church Relations held on May 3 and chaired by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II.

Your Holiness
Spiritual fathers,
Dear government representatives,

I am pleased with our meeting today and I consider it very important. As a result of discussions held with His Holiness, we concluded that it was necessary to set up a working group to review the relations between the Government of the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian Apostolic Church in order to have a permanent working format to discuss and resolve emerging issues.

It is also desirable that these decisions are not partial or short-term, but institutional and long-term. In this regard, I consider it extremely important that, in the context of these discussions, we combine our understanding of State-Church relations in the context of the new situation in the Republic of Armenia. Of course, there is no need to talk about the great importance and the role of the Armenian Apostolic Church for our nation. I want to say that a key provision in the electoral program of My Step Alliance, which is the ruling political force in Armenia, has been the preservation of our national identity. This very provision has been stipulated in the program of our political force since 2013. Indeed, this is a basic priority for us and, the Armenian Apostolic Church has always played a unique role in this respect. However, we likewise need to understand to what extent our views coincide in terms of preserving identity and what issues exist in this context that we should discuss.”

For the work of the working group to be effective, the Prime Minister stressed the importance of in-depth discussion and the full understanding of issues.

“We need to come to common solutions over the problems we are facing today, taking as a starting point our national and state interests. It is necessary to try to understand the situation today and listen to each other’s arguments, so that any decision might be based on arguments, that is, we must get out of the situation where we used to make arbitrary decisions. For example, the Mother See suggests teaching the history of the Armenian Apostolic Church in our schools. In this context, the first question is whether we should set a distinction between the history of the Armenian Apostolic Church and the history of the Armenian people, and if we do, why and how we put this distinction, and so on.

The next group of questions is related to tax relations. For instance, there is a problem with the taxing of Church-owned real estate, and we need to understand what our approach is in this matter. Is the property belonging to the Armenian Apostolic Church homogeneous in this sense, or are there different segments, and should a differentiated or general approach be provided to these segments?

During the conversations held with His Holiness, I touched on this topic several times. Especially as we have launched a large-scale campaign calling on citizens to pay taxes, because taxes eventually result in the amounts that the Government can spend to achieve its objectives.

We must clearly state here that we need to be backed by the Armenian Apostolic Church for this perception to take root deeper and deeper into our reality. And, thank God, our appeal is being given a specific response today.

I have already said that we are going to exceed the State budget revenue target by at least 40 billion drams this year, which will make it possible to raise the salaries of servicemen, teachers and make serious capital investments. And I think that we should continue to act in this logic.

Of course, to begin with, 40 billion is a very good indicator, so to speak, out of the ordinary mode, but these 40 billion, of course, is not the figure that should please us. We must take serious steps in this direction. And in this regard, we should also discuss these issues.

Acknowledging that we have agreed to discuss all issues freely in the context of arguments, I would like to emphasize once again that I highly appreciate not only the role of the Armenian Apostolic Church, in general, but also the strengthening of Christian values in the Republic of Armenia.

And I dare to say that the non-violent velvet popular revolution in Armenia was largely based on Christian values. And as a citizen, as a politician, I consider that a turning point came in my life when I had the opportunity to read and re-read the New Testament.

I believe that the doctrine that underlies is actually revolutionary in all respects, and this is just the formula that can bring happiness to the Republic of Armenia, its citizens and humanity, as a whole.

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